Meet Romeo, world’s loneliest frog, and his new mate Juliet

Romeo, the frog formerly known as the world’s loneliest, has joined more than 9,000 other species in National Geographic’s Photo Ark, an effort to document every captive species on Earth before they go extinct.

Living only in one small stream within Bolivia’s Andean cloud forests, or yungas, Sehuencas water frogs (Telmatobius yuracare) have plummeted in number due to habitat loss, pollution, and climate change, among other threats.

Romeo has lived at Centro Kayra, a captive-breeding centre in Cochabamba, Bolivia, for ten years.
PHOTOGRAPH BY JOEL SARTORE, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC PHOTO ARK

Collected from the wild a decade ago, Romeo is incredibly rare—until a few weeks ago, he was the last known specimen of his kind alive.

Because he’s so valuable, “to photograph Romeo, you have to go into a refrigerated trailer full of aquariums that's been outfitted as a clean room,” Sartore says by email. “This means you have to change into sterilised jumpsuits and boots, and that's just to see him.”

“Then there's the trick of photographing Romeo so that his personality shines through,” Sartore says.

PHOTO ARK: SAVING SPECIES ONE PHOTO AT A TIME
Many of the species that keep our planet diverse and healthy are rapidly disappearing in the wild. That’s why National Geographic and photographer Joel Sartore are building a Photo Ark, documenting every species in captivity, including those at risk of extinction. At 6,000 species and counting, the National Geographic Photo Ark is inspiring people to care and take action to save them.

For instance, Sartore had to experiment with creative angles and positions using his camera to get Romeo and Juliet to make eye contact with the viewer—and thus feel more connected to them and their plight, he says.

“I figure if the public cares deeply about the fate of a frog, they'll care about everything else in the natural world as well,” Sartore says.

The effort paid off: In January, Teresa Camacho Badani, the museum’s chief of herpetology, and colleagues discovered five Sehuencas water frogs, including Juliet, a juvenile female, and three males.

“I didn’t think I’d look for any frog with as much passion as I did on this expedition,” says Badani, who endured long days of rain, humidity, and rough terrain before she spotted the frogs in a stream on the final day of her trip.

Badani added she was driven by intense pressure to locate more specimens, knowing that Romeo was aging alone in the aquarium.

For one, Romeo has shown physical signs he’s ready to mate, and the aquarium has a good track record of breeding a related endangered species, the Titicaca water frog. It’s also possible future expeditions could find more frogs, though Badani notes they’re clearly very rare. The earliest generation that could be reintroduced into the wild would be Romeo and Juliet’s grandchildren.

A massive hydroelectric project is underway in the Bolivian yungas, and large tracts of the region have already been deforested.

“We need to get in there and start working with local communities to help them protect these beautiful cloud forests and protect livelihoods,” according to Jordan, who is also a National Geographic Explorer.

Romeo also isn’t alone in that 15 related frogs in the Telmatobius genus are imperilled, Badani adds.

“Romeo’s species is an example,” she says, “of what various species of amphibians are going through in the world.”